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Saudi Arabia: Riyadh To Reopen Embassy In Baghdad After 25 Years

A Saudi delegation will travel to Baghdad in the coming week to start preparations to reopen an embassy in the Iraqi capital for the first time in 25 years, the Saudi Press Agency said Jan. 3, Reuters reported. The Saudi Press Agency also said Riyadh planned to set up a general consulate in Arbil. Saudi Arabia closed its Baghdad embassy in 1990 after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The diplomatic effort comes as Saudi Arabia continues to compete with Iran for influence in the region .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Plunging Oil Prices Test Texas’ Economic Boom

ENLARGE Oil tankers are loaded with crude in Corpus Christi, Texas, in December. The area has prospered in recent years due to the energy boom in the Eagle Ford shale formation, but falling prices could test that. Eddie Seal for The Wall Street Journal Retired Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher remembers a Texas bumper sticker from the late 1980s, when falling energy prices triggered an ugly regional downturn: “Dear Lord, give me another boom and I promise I won’t screw it up.” Texas got its wish with another energy-driven boom, and now plunging oil prices are testing whether the state has held up its end of the bargain. The Lone Star State’s economy has been a national growth engine since the recession ended, expanding at a rate of 4.4% annually between 2009 and 2013, twice the pace of the U.S. as a whole. The downturn in energy prices now […]

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Democrats to Push Clean Energy, Export Limits in Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

ByAmy Harder Senate Democrats will introduce a series of amendments countering the GOP push to pass legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline, Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Sunday. The amendments are unlikely to change the ultimate outcome of the bill, which is expected to pass and face a potential veto from President Barack Obama . But the Democratic strategy will add more political tension to what’s expected to be a partisan showdown between Mr. Obama and Republicans pushing to approve the pipeline as their first item of business this upcoming Congress. Democrats will introduce at least three amendments that would make the Keystone measure “more of a jobs bill,” Mr. Schumer, the fourth-most-senior Democrat in the upper chamber, said Sunday on CBS ‘s “Face The Nation.” The amendments will require the steel used in the pipeline to be made in the U.S., ban exports of oil shipped through […]

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Railroad Operators’ Fixes To Be Tested Again — Corporate Outlook

By Laura Stevens and Jesse Newman Rail congestion that caused headaches for shippers of everything from corn to coal may start to ease in 2015 as operators spend more to increase capacity. The entire transportation industry experienced capacity strains in 2014 as the U.S. economy continued to recover. Rail was one of the hardest hit areas, with unexpectedly strong demand and bad weather taking their toll on service. Severe delays for shipments of corn, soybeans and other crops in the upper Midwest began in early 2014, with bitterly cold temperatures forcing operators to run shorter, slower trains even as a record harvests produced more grain needing transport. The snarls returned after another bumper harvest in the autumn. The coal industry also has complained of significant delays, particularly in the western U.S. To fix this, railroads including BNSF Railway Co., owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., are collectively spending […]

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U.S. Diesel Prices Fall for Ninth Straight Week

ENLARGE Trucks are parked during the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas last August. Prices of diesel fuel are down 29% over the past nine weeks. Bloomberg News Diesel prices in the U.S. declined for a ninth straight week, their longest losing streak on record, as continued moderate weather in the Northeast kept heating-oil demand subdued. Front-month futures for ultralow-sulfur diesel, which are also used as a proxy for heating oil, have dropped in recent months alongside plummeting crude-oil prices. Crude oil is refined into diesel, among other fuels. While diesel is mostly used as a transportation fuel, cold-weather demand for heating oil can cause diesel futures to spike in the winter. Prices rose 6.6% in January 2014 as frigid temperatures spread across much of the nation. This year, temperatures have been mild and refinery production is high. Consumers in the Northeast, where heating-oil use is most common, are […]

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Oil price drop expected to hurt fringe areas in Bakken the most

OGA, N.D. – Ben Chorn had a good vacation in Minnesota last month, making it to a Vikings game, a hockey game in Duluth and getting engaged. But while he was gone, the price of oil hit him personally. “While on vacation, I got a call from someone who’s covering for me and said, ‘Hey your rig’s being laid down,’” said Chorn, who does geology work on rigs for Sunburst Consulting. He’s had a slow six weeks since then. The oil price drop will impact fringe regions in the Bakken the most, experts said, because the oil there costs more to extract. “I think those areas will slow down, but we’ll come back and we’ll get them again,” said Kathy Neset, a geologist with Neset Consulting in Tioga. Chorn said the rig he was meant to work on was pulled by a smaller operator and was on the fringe […]

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Wind and Solar Energy: Transforming the Grid with Clean Energy, Reliably, Every Day

Despite years of successful experience, dozens of studies, and increasing utility support for clean energy, urban myth holds that electricity from renewable energy is unreliable. Yet over 75,000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar power have been integrated, reliably, into the nation’s electric grid to date. That’s enough electricity to supply 17.9 million homes. And, as a new NRDC fact sheet published today illustrates, the electric grid can handle much higher levels of zero-carbon wind and solar power, far more than what’s necessary to achieve the relatively modest carbon emission reductions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to limit pollution from existing power plants. But first, a little background on how our nation’s electric system works. Grid basics The nation’s high-power transmission system is made up of three largely separate grids: one on either side of the Continental Divide (roughly) and the third in Texas. The two largest […]

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Euro Tumbles to Nine-Year Low

ENLARGE The euro fell amid concerns about Greece. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The euro tumbled to a nine-year low on Monday, struck by a fresh dose of nerves over Greek politics, a backdrop of steadily building expectations that the European Central Bank will soon beef up its stimulus program, and a persistently robust dollar. The single currency sank as low as $1.1861 against the dollar in Asian trading hours on Monday, before picking up slightly to trade at $1.1950 early in Europe. The move came amid growing fears over the election in Greece in late January that some fear could pave the way for the country’s exit from the eurozone. Traders and analysts said the latest jitters stemmed from a report in Saturday’s edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel which cited unnamed sources saying the German government is confident the eurozone would cope with a Greece exit if it […]

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Is Peak Oil Dead?

Longtime readers of the site and listeners to the show will know that the founder of Financial Sense, Jim Puplava, has been a regular proponent of peak oil since 2002, when oil prices were trading around $20/barrel. Now that oil has fallen in half from its $100+ range in place over the past few years, many have written us wondering if Jim has changed his views. That is, is peak oil now dead? In last Saturday’s Big Picture, Jim goes “on the record” by saying no, he doesn’t think peak oil is dead, though it has clearly been pushed out further with the massive increase in US shale production and deceleration of global economic growth. This, and the unwinding of massive long positions in the crude oil market, have likely exacerbated the downtrend and led to momentum selling. Though oil could move lower and possibly reach the low end […]

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Oil’s future hangs between the emirates and the shales of Eagle Ford

The decision by president Barack Obama to open the door to US oil exports seeped out of Washington in a low-key manner last week, but the impact could be as explosive as a New Year’s Eve firework display. The ban – imposed after the Middle East oil embargoes in the 1970s – has made it close to impossible to ship abroad the fruits of America’s shale bonanza. It also long looked wrong-headed in the home of free trade. The US department of commerce quietly overturned the four-decade-old policy by saying it had started to approve a backlog of requests to sell processed light oil to foreign buyers. The issue is tremendously sensitive, which is possibly why the announcement came out at a time of year when most policymakers were still at home enjoying the Christmas holidays with their families. Many manufacturers and many domestic consumers are totally opposed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple